An emergency meeting of the remaining members of the Jewish Agency and the executive of the Jewish National Council met today at Dr. Weizmann’s home in Rehovoth to map cut Zionist strategy in the crucial weeks ahead.
A special session of the Inner Zionist Actions Committee has been called for Tuesday, when Dr. Weizmann is expected to issue a statement expressing his personal reaction to present events in Palestine and, at the same time, the official attitude of the World Zionist Organization will be made clear.
The chief problem at the moment is reorganizing the Agency’s activities, since no replacements will be named for the members of the executive who are under arrest. The official Jewish attitude on non-cooperation with the government must also be drafted.
Dr. Weizmann this afternoon visited the Agency members detained at Latrun prison, but it is not known whom he saw, nor the subject of their conversations.
The “Voice of Israel” today declared that the British “provocations” have not lured the Haganah into an open battle, but “the day will come when the Haganah will choose the appropriate moment to strike.”
The broadcast ridiculed the government’s “optimistic assumption” that it has broken the backbone of the resistance by seizing David Remez and Dr. Bornard Joseph and has crippled illegal immigration by detaining Isaac Gruenbaum. It said that the “Palmach,” the Haganah striking force, was intact and its most important leaders and instructors are continuing their work. It added that if the government’s allegation that its recent activities were not aimed at the Haganah were correct, it would not have conducted such a wide-scale arms search at Yagour.
For the first time in a week, Yagour was virtually free of British troops today. After a thorough combing of the colony, during which they unearthed a large quantity of arms and ammunition, the soldiers have withdrawn leaving only a cordon around the settlement.
Yesterday, paratroopers of the famed Sixth Airborne Division, which is garrisoning Palestine, raided the Jewish quarters of Jaffa, and searched slum dwellings in a hunt for the hideout where the three kidnapped British officers who were released last Thursday had been confined for 16 days.
It was learned that despite reports appearing in the British press yesterday, the authorities are not planning to hunt for Moshe Sneh, a member of the Agency, and Abba Chushai, Haifa labor leader, although they are wanted. The two will be detained only if they surrender to the authorities.
DOCUMENTS FROM AGENCY FILES SENT TO LONDON FOR PUBLICATION
Documents found in the Agency files and seized during the raids on various colonies were sent by air to London today after having been examined by officers of the Criminal Investigation Division.
They will be scrutinized by experts and then will be incorporated in a government White Paper which will attempt to show a link between members of the Agency and terrorist outbreaks. The authorities also claim that they have discovered a list of the Palmach’s leaders and instructors at the village of Mizra.
(British code experts have been flown to Palestine to assist in deciphering documents allegedly found in the headquarters of the Jewish Agency, it was reported in London by the News Chronicle.)
The Haganah radio today also broadcast a denial of an official announcement that Otto Freund and Benjamin Papanek, alleged informers who led troops to arms caches at Yagour, had been executed. The broadcast said that the two were kidnapped on the orders of the Jewish resistance movement, but are being held awaiting trial.
There was no explanation of an earlier report that Freund had been found dead in Haifa, with three thousand pounds in his pocket. Meanwhile, it is learned reliably that three informers were involved in the Yagour incident, and one is understood to have been flown to Australia by the authorities.
He is reported to have been an instructor at the Herman Tietz Vocational School, situated across the road from Yagour, where Papanek and Freund were students before they joined the Czech army. The three were recognized by children residing in the colony.
Another kidnapping took place today, when 19-year-old Yochanan Gross was dragged into a jeep by four men dressed in uniforms of British paratroopers. He has not been heard from since.
PLAN INCREASED TAXES TO COVER DAMAGES CAUSED BY “JEWISH TERRORISTS”
The office in Tel Aviv where identity cards are issued was invaded last night by three armed men who set fire to the interior. The blaze was extinguished by firemen, however, before it could do much damage.
A well-informed source said that the Palestine Government is working on plans for increased taxation during the coming fiscal year to “cover damages caused by Jewish terrorists.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
